Ivy-Style has just learned from a top-notch (and top drawer) source, who will be the subject of our next post, the identity of the creator of the late ’70s dorm-room poster “Are You a Preppie?” Long before he went on to helm such films as “Patch Adams,” “Ace Ventura” and “Liar, Liar,” Tom Shadyac created …
Mentioned recently in the post “Searching For The P In WASP,” this 1979 cover story on preppies is one of the most important historical documents on Ivy Style. It’s situated between the end of the heyday of the Ivy League Look and the preppy trend of the 1980s. It was first posted here in 2009 …
When we ran our profile of a tradly dressed Washington DC police officer recently, a reader left a comment invoking the name of Mike Stone, the cop played by Karl Malden on the ’70s TV show “The Streets Of San Francisco.” In contrast to his wide-lapelled and groovy necktie-wearing partner (played by a young Michael …
Although we’ll be examining 1967 throughout the year as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the fall of the Ivy League Look, this post comes from 10 years later. It landed in my inbox a month or two ago, and if I recall it was an archive piece reposted by The Washington Post. Written by …
This is the latest installment in our occasional series on the fall of the Ivy League Look in the late ’60s. If you’d like to share your memories, use the contact button above. * * * I was born in 1952, so I was 15 in 1967. A friend of mine says the height of …
Here is the latest in our series of reader anecdotes about the end of the heyday of the Ivy League Look. If you’d like to share your own memories, use the contact button above. * * * I was in school, college and grad school as an eyewitness to the Ivy League Look from the …
The past couple of days discussion in the comments section has turned to the decline of the Ivy heyday. The stance here at Ivy Style HQ is that 1967 was either the beginning of the end, or the end of the end. The top photo is from the heyday, when college men sported jackets and …
I had an obsession last summer. I call my obsessions “manias” in homage of Kenneth Grahame’s aristocratic amphibian, Mr. Toad. I sometimes feel like the dapper toad, but I have to admit my manias pale in comparison, as I gravitate to armchair pursuits that risk neither life nor fortune. My summer mania started this way: it …
In a 1973 issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly, Richard K. Rein wrote about P-Town’s legendary clothing shop Langrock. “Princeton’s oldest and most successful men’s clothing store,” he wrote, “is a curious mix of effete snobbery, highbrow intellectualism, and small town warmth and personal service that remained singularly unruffled by the sweeping sartorial changes occurring …
We return to the topic of Langrock, the lengendary Princeton clothier, with these two ads from the 1970s aimed at the campus community. Together they illustrate how the shop viewed itself following the fall in popularity of the Ivy League Look. In the top ad, Langrock touts itself as a noble knight defending the …
Nick Hilton, Princeton-based son of late Ivy clothier (and Ralph Lauren’s first investor) Norman Hilton, has written a terrific post on his blog about the legendary clothier Langrock. Entitled “A Case Study In Retail Darwinism,” the piece explores how Langrock’s resistance to change — even after the fall of the Ivy League Look — doomed …
There was a time when you could only get critter-embroidered clothing from a small number of clothiers, such as Chipp. The bespoke blazer above, with embroidered golf clubs, was made in 1971 and is currently for sale on Etsy for $500. But today, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, critter litter is …
When madras season officially opened on Memorial Day, we ran a post showing George HW Bush clad in a madras sportcoat in company that wasn’t exactly wearing the same (can you imagine Obama or Romney doing that in 2012?) Now that July 4th marks our deeper descent into madras, this time we show the fabric …
Update, 3 July, 10:04 AM: Last night Ivy Style crossed the 10,000-comment threshold with these infamous words that will echo across America this summer as families pile up the station wagon and head out on the road: Are we there yet? The comment was left by none other than regular reader Henry, who will finally …
Perhaps this post should be called “Coming Repulsions,” either because you believe that tampering with the 1978 classic — which is set at a college fraternity house in 1962 — is sacrilege, or, like me, you were eight years old when it came out and when you saw it later you didn’t think it was …